Another one (Erick Wujcik)

[coffee]

I just read that Erick Wujick died. He designed, among other things, the Amber Diceless system which I know has been discussed a bit here on this forum.

www.erickwujcik.com/

What is this, an epidemic?

[Finarvyn]

Yeah, it's sad. I knew it was coming but the end came a little faster than I anticipated. I'm one of the lucky few who got to have him as a Game Master, both in an Amber campaign and in his "experimental role playing" settings. He was a fantastic person and will be missed quite a bit in the Amber community. :-(

[Finarvyn]

A couple more links, if you want to discuss Amber:

My own Amber board

Shadows of Amber

theRPGsite

Sadly, Erick didn't live long enough to see 2E ADRP ever get off the ground. He appointed a couple guys to start the project but as best as anyone can tell it's never gotten underway and is still in negotiations with the Zelazny estate.

[vladtolenkov]

Let's not forget that Erick also created the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game. I must say that I'm not a big fan of Palladium, but I found the TMNT game to be quite fun. Machinating and plotting at the Courts of Amber and Chaos is all well and good but sometimes rolling up a mutant hedgehog is just the ticket!

I will say though that playing Amber was one of the most important rpg experiences of my gaming life. The industry has lost one of its true innovators and free thinkers.

[vladtolenkov]

Fin,

Since you gamed with Erick can you share a story about what it was like?

[Finarvyn]

Okay, here goes...

In one of the Amber games (a one-shot at a convention) he started out by giving us a general guildline as to how to generate characters. We took a couple of minutes to put together stats and powers. Then he got together with us and had us determine parantage and our realationship with other PC's. At this point he broke us into smaller groups with similar parantage characters grouped together and told us to come up with a few common experiences that would make up like or dislike our brotheren. He watched us for a few minutes to make sure we were underway properly, picked up our character sheets, then he left the room.

He left the room!

He was gone for 20-30 minutes and here were a bunch of us who didn't know each other all sitting together and sharing stories of characters we had just created. And we started doing it more and more in character and I realized that we were really roleplaying and there wasn't a GM in sight. I assume he was looking at the character sheets and taking notes, but I really don't know for sure.

He popped his head in occasionally and looked to see that we were all still engaged in activity, or walked through the room to eavesdrop a little, then went back to wherever he was hanging out.

When it seemed like we were winding down a little, he came back in and pulled up a chair in the middle of the room and said "Okay, let's get this adventure underway," or some such thing. First thing he did was to ask each of us what we were doing right now in the game. Then he proceeded to move each of us to different places than where we had been sitting and grouped us according to where we were in the game. He encouraged us to talk amongst ourselves if we were placed together, but to do it "in character" while he observed. When we did things he would expect us to stand and "act it out" and then sometimes he would send us to another part of the room.

It was so amazing. While not really a LARP, described what we did and sometimes acted them out and there were never dice to be found or need to consult a rulebook. Once we got "into" the game we continued to play while he was with other groups and only if a conflict happened did he need to scurry over to take charge.

He controlled the whole room, even though he was working with a few of us at a time.

[vladtolenkov]

Thanks Fin! Great post.

[wulfgar]

I'll voice some more love for TMNT&Other Strangeness. It was the 2nd rpg I played (shortly after D&D) and the first that I owned myself. Lots of fun memories.